


Tell Me You Meant It

by CookieDoughMe



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Dream Sex, M/M, Multi, Shared Dream, Vince and Dave make an appearance too, dream trouble, naudrey to nuke to threegulls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 17:55:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13300164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CookieDoughMe/pseuds/CookieDoughMe
Summary: Existing Naudrey relationship, Trouble-triggered Nuke, ending up at a happy Threegulls.Think fairly late on in the series in terms of character and relationship development, but with slightly less death, disaster and immanent apocalypse. So Duke and Audrey have had their little moment in Colorado, Nathan is done being jealous about it, but equally the world is not actually about to end (though the Troubles are still active).I apologise in advance for the pun.





	1. The Dream

It was a windy afternoon as Nathan walked into the Gull. It was busy and he wasn't altogether sure what he was doing there, but he took a seat at the bar and ordered a beer anyway.

And then, in that way that happens in dreams, it was suddenly quiet, and the bartender whose name he hadn't quite been able to remember had been seamlessly replaced by Duke.

Duke polished glasses and served him another beer as the rapidly thinning crowd disappeared completely. In another twist of dream logic, it was suddenly late; dark outside and with no one else here but Duke, and Nathan somehow knew that all of the doors were locked.

Nathan kept drinking, wondering idly why he was not getting drunk, and why Duke was not telling him to leave, since it was clearly way past closing time.

“Another?” Duke asked.

“Don't wanna drink on my own,” Nathan told him.

“Easily remedied,” observed Duke, and opened two bottles of beer, putting one in front of Nathan and bringing the other with him as he made his way around the bar to the next bar stool. “We never do this,” Duke added.

“Drink beer?” wondered Nathan.

“Hang out,” Duke clarified. “Just the two of us.”

Nathan nodded an acknowledgment. “We used to,” he pointed out.

“We used to,” agreed Duke. “Even then it wasn't enough, “ he added after a moment, surprising both of them with his honesty.

Nathan turned to look at him, and raised an eyebrow.

Duke took another sip of beer. “I used to wonder how you couldn't see it. I didn't understand how you could spend all that time with me and not realise how I felt about you. But then, half the girls in school had a crush on you as well, and you didn't notice that either. I used to watch them watching you and you were completely oblivious. Even so I kept expecting you to notice when I looked at you that way. Sometimes I wished you would,” Duke turned to see a surprised-looking Nathan. “Sometimes I still do,” he added, letting his gaze rest on Nathan's lips.

Nathan blinked at him for a moment, then put his beer down and reached for Duke, pulling them together for a kiss. Despite the dream it felt so real. Nathan could taste Duke’s skin underneath the beer, smell his shampoo and feel the hairs of his goatee brush over his skin. He shifted off his bar stool at the same time Duke stood from his and they met in the middle, half-finished beers forgotten. Nathan brought his hand to the base of Duke’s skull and pushed his fingers up into his ponytail, feeling the shift from skin to hair beneath his palm.

Duke pulled them close together, running his hands down Nathan's back to his ass to hold their hips tight. While he knew this was only a dream, it felt real enough and he saw no reason not to take advantage of that and enjoy it.

Without anything so logical as the passing of time, they were suddenly in bed, though whose it was he didn't know. Soft white sheets and anonymous white walls; it could have been anywhere. All that mattered was that they were alone.

Their clothes fell away; from their own hands, from each other's, or just from the wish that they no longer be there, it was all the same. They ran their hands over each other's skin, they ran their tongues and their lips over each other's bodies. They twined their fingers through each other's hair and whispered sweet nothings in each other's ears.

_That feels amazing_

_I've wanted to do this for so long_

_I'm so glad you came back to Haven_

_Don't stop_

_Just there_

_Softer_

_Harder_

_More_

They surprised each other with the movements of their fingers, the tenderness in their voices and the look in their eyes. They pulled away to look each other up and down, and they held each other close, bodies pressed tight by strong hands. The dream took them through waves of pleasure together and subjective hours pulsed under their fingertips, unbroken by anything so real-life mundane as a climax.

But eventually, they got there too; pulled each other up to that feeling they could not come down from, pulled each other there with their palms and their fingertips, their lips and their tongues, their eyes and their words. And so the momentum of the dream carried them through to a shared climax as they clung tight to each other, cresting that wave as they held each other's eye.

Afterwards, they lay in the anonymous white sheets rumpled around them like clouds, and ran their hands lazily over each other's warm skin as they breathed the same air.

“This makes all those years hating each other seem a bit pointless,” Duke pointed out with a smile.

Nathan, suddenly serious, reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind Duke’s ear. “I never really hated you Duke,” he said.

Duke looked at him and then Nathan was awake. He sat up in his own bed, and looked around half expecting to find Duke there, it had felt so real. But he was alone.

On the Rouge, Duke stretched, reaching out across the bed as though he might find someone there, even as he knew it had been nothing but a dream.


	2. The Trouble

The next morning, Nathan walked into the office with a smile on his face, which made the frown on Audrey’s somehow even more of a shock. “You alright?” he asked.

“Hardly slept. Storm kept me awake all night,” Audrey grumbled through a sip of coffee.

“There was a storm?” Nathan asked.

“You didn't hear the wind?” Audrey shook her head in disbelief. “I'm staying at yours tonight.”

“Sure,” agreed Nathan happily. 

“What's up with you?” Audrey wondered, slightly put out that he had apparently slept fine. “You seem, extra …” she waved her coffee cup at him as she looked for the right word, “... smiley.”

Nathan shrugged, “Good dreams, I guess.”

“Oh? What about?” Audrey asked him as Stan came in to hand over some paperwork.

“Tell you later,” said Nathan quickly, and headed back out to the break area to find his own coffee. He had hardly got out of the door before he stepped back again as uniformed officers manoeuvred a couple of apparent suspects through the station towards the interview rooms.

“Stay out of my head you bastard!” one of them shouted to the other as they went past.

“What’s that about?” Nathan asked.

“Third case this morning of a dispute where someone has access to some information they're not supposed to have,” Stan explained. “Said he dreamt it,” he added with a shrug.

Nathan and Audrey shared a look and made their way to the interview rooms, Nathan’s own dream forgotten.

-

A little while later, Audrey and Nathan walked back into their office.

“So, they all dreamt about things that had been kept from them, but I don't get how they got the information. Prophetic dreams?” wondered Audrey. 

“Or dreaming someone else's memories?” suggested Nathan.

Frustrated, Audrey sat down heavily at her desk, fresh coffee in hand.

Nathan was about to ask her again if she was OK, but just then Vince and Dave walked in, bearing a box of pastries from Larissa’s.

“I thought you didn't shop there,” said Audrey.

“Apparently Larissa has worked out the secret to perfect croissants,” said Dave, by way of greeting.

“Said it came to her in a dream,” added Vince somewhat conspiratorially and held out the open box to Audrey.

She frowned at the information for a moment before taking one and biting into it. “This is good,” she said through a mouthful of croissant as Vince offered the box to Nathan.

Nathan turned the offer down, asking instead, “You ever hear of a Trouble like this before? Dreams? Secrets?”

Vince shook his head as Dave replied, “The Ebden Trouble in the 1920s involved dreams I think. But there are no Ebdens left now.”

“OK, thanks,” said Nathan.

“Thanks for the pastries!” Audrey called after them as they went, leaving the box on Nathan's desk.

-

Half an hour later, a couple more people were brought into the station, shouting at each other in what was clearly the continuation of an emotional argument. Nathan stood up from behind his desk to go see what was going on, but before he got to the door, Duke had joined them.

“Officers,” he greeted them cheerfully. “Some people don't know when to let something go,” he said with a glance behind him.

“You know them?” Audrey asked. “What's going on?”

Duke shrugged. “Some argument in the Gull.  _ ‘What did you do? How could you?’ _ ,  _ ‘How did you find out?’ _ ” he quoted. “Jo tried to blame it on a dream, but John wasn't having it. They were really going for each other's throats until I pulled them apart.”

Duke saw the look which passed between Audrey and Nathan which said  _ Sounds like another one. _

“This is a Trouble?” asked Duke. “I assumed it was just your standard low-level criminal activity.”

Nathan surprised all of them a little by not taking the opportunity that offered for some snarky comment, and just replied, “Yeah, seems to be.”

Duke peered into the pastry box and Nathan gestured  _ Help yourself  _ to him before adding, “Apparently the secret of perfect pastries came to her in a dream.”

“Oh that's right,” said Duke, evidently remembering the gossip that was presumably all over town by now. “Except, the way I heard it was that Rosemary  _ told it to her  _ in a dream.” He took a bite of pastry, missing the look on Audrey’s face at this clarification. “She was right too,” he added, looking at the pastry with some admiration.

“That’s it! Not just secrets, but conversations!” said Audrey, reaching for her notes. “Like some kind of shared dream? Not seeing the future or mind reading exactly, just actual conversations with the other person?” Flicking through her notes she said, almost to herself, “Did anyone have a dream last night that  _ didn't _ involve confessing some deeply held secret to someone else?” 

It took her a moment to notice how still both Duke and Nathan had gone. How very specifically they were not looking at each other. “Hang on,” she said to Nathan, blaming her lack of sleep for what felt like very slow and fuzzy thinking, “I know you said you had an interesting dream last night, but you didn't tell me what it was about yet.”

“I, um …” Nathan began, looking at the floor.

“‘Interesting’?” Duke quoted cautiously.

Audrey looked from one to the other for a moment, “OK, you both need to tell me what you dreamt about last night,” she said with feeling.

Nathan looked up at her slightly terrified, but she held her ground. “I'm not joking. Come on, spill it,” she told both of them.

Duke sighed, recognising that she was not going to let this go until she got an answer. “I was in the Gull, working,” he began. “It was the afternoon and it was busy, and then all of a sudden it …”

Duke paused and Nathan took up the tale for him, “All of a sudden it was late and it was quiet. You served me another beer, and I wondered why I wasn't getting drunk.”

“You said you didn't want to drink alone,” said Duke, putting down his half-eaten croissant.

“So you sat next to me with you own beer,” finished Nathan and they finally looked each other in the eye. His voice barely above a whisper, Nathan asked “That was really you?”

Duke nodded. “Tell me you meant it,” he said intently, his tone of voice pleading, questioning, and challenging, all at once.

Nathan took half a step forward and reached out to grab Duke’s arm. “Duke …” he said, and his intent was clear even before he found the words to continue, “... all of it.” Nathan pulled Duke towards him and they wrapped their arms around each other in a fierce hug, noses buried in necks as arms squeezed tight.

Audrey watched them as they stood there for a long moment. Even without knowing exactly what had happened between them, the general intent seemed clear enough. “You had a conversation in your dreams?” she asked gently.

Nathan felt Duke tense as he pulled away just far enough to catch Nathan's eye, apparently wary of how Audrey might react, or whether Nathan would want her to know the details. In an attempt to reassure Duke as much as to answer Audrey’s question, Nathan told her, “There was not much actual talking.” Nathan squeezed Duke’s arm as he reached a hand out to Audrey and as he looked at her, he saw that she understood.

“Detective …” Stan began as he stepped through the doorway and stopped as he saw Duke and Nathan still with their arms around each other. “It can wait,” he said as he stepped back out.

“OK, we need to have a conversation and we need to not have it here. The two of you are coming back to my place,” said Audrey. 

“But the case …” began Nathan in a half-hearted protest.

“Will wait for a few hours,” Audrey finished for him. “We're out of leads and there's not likely to be any developments until tonight at least. Though I am going to let Vince and Dave know it's about conversations in shared dreams, maybe they can check their archives again,” she added as she hearded Duke and Nathan out of the office.


	3. The Relationship

Duke was the first to speak, as soon as Audrey closed the door behind them. “So look, I'm just gonna come out and say it because it's probably pretty obvious at this point that I love the both of you, but it's also obvious that the two of you are in love with each other and I don't want to do anything to come between you,” he said earnestly. “I would never want to get in the way of what you two have together.”

As Nathan frowned at his feet, Audrey reached for Duke’s hand. “I don't know what happened in this shared dream of yours, and you don't need to tell me unless you want to, but it's clear to me that the two of you have feelings for each other. And yes, I love Nathan, but I love you too Duke, I hope you know that. And so, I guess that leaves all three of us with a decision to make doesn't it? We all have a choice of partners here … or, maybe we none of us need to make a choice at all.”

Nathan nodded, his hand taking her free one. “The dream, it was… it would be hard to explain, really. But yes, there were… feelings. And so yes, I …” Nathan paused for a big breath in, not so much as if it was difficult to say, as if he couldn't quite believe that he was allowed to, “... I love the both of you. And I don't know how a relationship with three people in it works, exactly, but… perhaps we can figure it out.”

Audrey nodded her agreement, and turned to see Duke staring at them in wide eyed surprise. “I thought this was going to be a conversation about boundaries and dealing with the past and… instead you mean …? Audrey you don't even seem  _ surprised _ ,” Duke added, somewhat exasperated.

She smiled at him. “A secret kept from one person is not necessarily so difficult for everyone else to see,” she said cryptically, and shared a look with Nathan that told Duke there were some past conversations there he wanted to hear about. But that would wait.

“You mean, I get to have  _ both  _ of you?” Duke backtracked a little, returning to the main part of the conversation that was making his stomach do back flips.

Audrey looked at Nathan, a question in her eyes. 

“If you want,” Nathan said.

“‘ _ If _ I want?’” Duke echoed in disbelief as he stepped a little closer to Nathan. “I meant everything I said in that dream, everything I did. To say I love Audrey as well doesn't negate any of that.”

“You don't need to explain to me why you love Audrey,” Nathan pointed out, and he rested a hand on Duke’s arm.

Duke felt Audrey squeeze his other hand and he took that for all the encouragement he needed to dart towards Nathan for a kiss, pulling them close together with a sudden urgency. But after a moment he pulled away again. “You can't feel this now,” Duke said, trying to keep the disappointment from his voice.

“No,” admitted Nathan. “But I remember.”

Duke smiled, and reached for Nathan's hand, pressing their palms together and interlacing their fingers. “You remember how it felt when I took your hand?” Duke asked.

“Yes,” replied Nathan a little wistfully, looking down at their fingers side by side.

Duke turned their hands so the inside of Nathan's wrist was facing up. “You remember how it felt when I rubbed my thumb along the soft skin of your wrist?” he asked.

There was just the barest pause before Nathan replied, his voice just a little more intense, “Yes.”

“And how about when I ran a line of kisses up the inside of your arm?” asked Duke, pulling Nathan's arm towards him so he could kiss it where Nathan had a good view. He planted one soft kiss just above Nathan's wrist and then asked him, “What did that feel like?”

Nathan breathed a couple of shallow breaths before he spoke again, “Warm and wet and soft; a line of little blooms of heat from your lips. From your tongue.”

Duke planted more kisses as he spoke, letting Nathan see his lips, and his tongue as it moved across Nathan's skin for real. Duke took a moment too to glance across at Audrey, and he saw her watching them with a soft smile.

“And then I ran my fingers up your arm and to the inside of your elbow,” remembered Duke, running the tips of his fingers across the crease at the inside of Nathan's arm. All Nathan managed as he remembered this was an inarticulate expression of desire; pure naked want for something he simply could not feel.

Audrey shared a look with Duke before she moved, and she made sure Nathan had seen her before she touched him to run her fingers lightly along his skin just above Duke’s. “Like that?” she asked, not expecting an answer.

Nathan moaned his appreciation at the feel of her touch and Duke smiled at her so warmly she thought she might melt on the spot.

“What next?” she asked.

“I ran my hand up his arm and pushed my fingers under his t-shirt, and found the skin at his waist with my other hand.“

Audrey grinned as she followed Duke’s instruction and watched Nathan's eyes flutter closed; as much from the memory of the sensation in the dream and the fact that Duke was here reliving it with them as from her touch, she knew.

“I think we must have kissed at that point,” said Duke.

“Hmmm, well if I'm going to pass that on, you're going to have to show me what kind of kiss it was,” said Audrey, all mock seriousness.

Nathan's eyes snapped open and for one awful moment, Duke thought he was going to object. “OK?” Audrey asked him, clearly not expecting him to disagree (And Duke  _ really _ wanted to quiz her on how she was so confident about that, but now was not the time.) Nathan nodded, though the only sound he managed was something like, “yghd.”

Audrey smiled and pulled Duke towards her,. He kissed her so gently and tenderly the softness left her reeling. “I'm not sure I can do justice to that kiss to be honest,” she told him when he pulled away.

Duke smiled warmly at her and Nathan told them “It was fun to watch in any case.”

Audrey grinned at him and leant forward to kiss him, and as she did, Duke spoke to them. “There were all kinds of kisses anyway; I kissed him soft and slow, lips barely touching. And I kissed him quick and hard, teeth clashing as we fought for space. I kissed his ear and his neck, and …”

Duke paused, hesitating. Nathan wanted to tell him it was OK; that he could tell Audrey everything he wanted to. That she had worked out long ago that Nathan had feelings for him. That she had encouraged him to act on them, but he had never quite managed to believe they would be reciprocated. But that kind of detail would come later. For now, he just asked him, “Keep taking Duke.”

And Duke did. “I kissed along his collarbone, ran my tongue over his nipples and sucked a bruise into his ribs.”

“And Nathan?” Audrey prompted Duke, in between kisses with Nathan. “What did he do to you?”

There was a little pause before Duke replied, “Everything I'd ever wanted him to.” 

At that, Nathan pulled away from Audrey and leant forward to kiss Duke carefully, watching the movements of his hands as he held Duke’s jaw, his eyes held open to see how their mouths fit together.

“I want to see you,” Nathan told him, and Duke pulled off his t-shirt in one fluid movement. After an appreciative glance, Nathan ran his hands over Duke’s chest, but only for a moment before he pulled away. “I can’t tell what I’m doing,” Nathan said, “How I’m touching you; hard or soft, I can’t tell.”

Audrey reached for Nathan and returned his hand to Duke’s chest, before placing her own palm over the top, their fingers interlaced. She flexed her fingers to press harder and more lightly against Duke’s skin, moving against Nathan’s fingers as she did. “You feel that?” she asked him. When he nodded she moved their hands, running Nathan’s palm over Duke’s skin and watching Duke’s reaction. “You like the both of us touching you at once?” she asked him.

“Yeah,” he replied, sounding slightly stunned that it was happening at all.

Audrey relaxed her arm and let Nathan move their joined hands. He ran their fingers over Duke’s nipples and ribs, and down to his stomach. He brought his hand to Duke’s belt and shifted to the side so that he could see what he was doing to undo the buckle.  As they each pushed a hand into his pants, Nathan pressed himself to Duke’s hip and pushed Audrey gently to Duke’s other side so their other hands could meet at his back. 

“So Duke,” Nathan began, “you know you said you didn't want to come between us?” 

Audrey snorted at him and Duke just moaned in delighted disbelief.

Audrey ran a hand down Duke’s lower back, down under his clothes and over his ass, pushing his jeans away as she did. Duke’s clothing half-way down his thighs, Nathan and Audrey wrapped their intertwined fingers around his erection. Duke reached out to wrap an arm round each of their waists, apparently still too stunned to do much else besides enjoy the moment.

And enjoy it he did, as they moved their fingers over his back and along his cock, watching his reactions, watching each other.

But then Audrey had a suggestion. “Duke can I fuck you?”

“Yes, of course yes,” he replied quickly.

-

It took some discussion and slightly awkward shuffling on the bed before Audrey got her boys where she wanted them. As she straddled Duke and sank down onto him, he half lay underneath her, half sat with his back supported by Nathan, who knelt on the mattress behind him. Audrey pulled both of their hands towards her as she moved, and then watched happily as Duke slid his shoulders to the side a little and turned his head to hiss Nathan.

Even as he kissed Nathan, Duke’s hand found her breast, and then Nathan was reaching for her too, his fingers running down her body to the point where her and Duke connected. He twisted his wrist and flexed his fingers and she moaned in delight as he found her clit. Duke took that moment to squeeze her breast, his thumb running over her nipple. “God I always knew you two would make a good team,” she breathed. “Fuck,” she added as she moved her hips.

Duke and Nathan both watched her for a moment, her eyes closed and head thrown back in pleasure, before they turned to each other in delight. “A little too good,” Audrey added, pushing Nathan’s hand gently away. “I want your tongue to make me come. I want you to taste Duke inside me,” she told him. She grinned at their enthusiastic and inarticulate response to this idea and moved her hips a little more quickly over Duke. “Kiss him for me,” she told Nathan, and as they ran their shared hands over his body again and Audrey moved ever more quickly, Duke came with a shout muffled by Nathan’s tongue.

-

They laughed their way through some more slightly awkward shuffling as Duke twisted his way out from between them. Audrey stayed on her knees and Nathan lay down on his back, shuffling down the bed between her legs to pull her hips down towards his mouth. Duke knelt beside her, kissing her neck, and running his hands all over her chest and back; part caressing her, part holding her up as Nathan’s tongue and lips and mouth and hands make her shake.

Afterwards, as she collapsed onto the mattress beside Nathan she laughed in delight. “I always knew you two would make a good team,” she said again.

Duke, still kneeling, smiled down at her and then turned his gaze to Nathan, lying stretched out and naked on the bed between them. Keeping his hand well away from Nathan’s skin, he traced a line in the air from Nathan’s lips to his cock, and Nathan arched his back off the bed as he watched.

As he moved his hand back to where he’d started, Audrey joined them. “Keep your eyes on Duke,” she told him, and she did the same as she pressed her fingers to Nathan’s skin to mirror the movement of Duke’s hand above him.

“God, look at you,” Duke muttered. “You’re even more beautiful in real life. I thought I was lucky when it was just a dream. I kept thinking I was going to wake up, or that you were going to disappear, or push me away, tell me to get lost. And instead you just, kept reaching for me. When I reached for your cock I thought you were going to tell me, no. And instead, you just reached for me too.”

Nathan smiled up at him and reached for him again, and Duke went willingly, lying down next to him on his side. He propped his hand up on one arm and reached the other hand out to trace the lines of Nathan’s face. “And then,” he continued, “the feel of you as your muscles tensed, the sound of it as your breath sped up. But the most perfect thing of all was the look in your eye; those blue, blue eyes that didn’t look away as I told you what I liked.”

Duke lowered his voice and moved nearer to Nathan’s ear, who closed his eyes to listen more closely. Audrey ran her hand down Nathan’s stomach again and found his cock, fingers gripping slowly, moving in time with the murmur of Duke’s voice.

She shifted a little further down the bed, ostensibly to run her finger down the inside of Nathan's leg to the sole of his foot, but also to let the two men have some space. As much as she loved Duke for not wanting to interfere with her and Nathan's relationship, she wanted to give Duke and Nathan their own space as well. They had obviously shared something in that dream that she would never be part of, and that was all to the good as far as she was concerned.

She heard only snippets of what Duke whispered in Nathan’s ear as she moved her hands over his skin. “Remember the feel of  … the softness, the pressure …. when my fingertips made your skin shiver … the heat, the wet … the way my muscles tensed underneath you … remember your hands in my hair … remember my tongue against yours …. remember …. remember …. remember ….”


	4. The Truth

It was some time later and Duke and Nathan were almost drifting off to sleep, when Audrey slipped out of bed to go to the bathroom. When she came back she started pulling on clothes, and held up her phone to explain, “Message from Vince; it seems like the Edben Trouble fits, and when he looked into the family tree he found that although there's no one left with that name, the last Ebden had a sister. Her grand-daughter just got divorced; apparently her husband had been having an affair for years.”

“A secret she would have preferred to have known about,” observed Nathan.

“Exactly,” agreed Audrey as she pulled on a sweater. “I'm going to go talk to her. It seems like just being aware of what's happening might be enough for her to control it. If not, maybe I'll need to get the ex involved; clear the air.”

As Nathan made as if to get up, Audrey stopped him with a hand on his chest, “Nope,” she told him firmly. “The both of you stay here and snuggle. There's no danger from this Trouble while we’re awake, and I'm immune in any case. If anything dramatic happens I'll call, but otherwise you are staying right there.”

Nathan frowned, opened his mouth as if to object. Audrey spoke over him, “I'm serious Nathan, I'll be fine and you are staying here. I will handcuff you to the bed if I have to.”

Nathan gave in, and lay back down next to Duke. “Call if you need to though,” he told her seriously. Then in a very different tone of voice he added, “And maybe we'll revisit that handcuff idea another time.”

She grinned at him and kissed them both before she went. 

They turned to look at each other. Duke ran a hand down Nathan's arm; his fingers caressing numb skin. “Is it terrible that I kind of hope this particular Trouble could get resolved tomorrow?” asked Duke.

Nathan smiled. “No,” he told him gently. “But they will all end at some point and in the meantime this is real. This … us,” he clarified with feeling. “For all the potential advantages of dream sex, I'd rather have the real-life kind.”

Duke smiled back at him. “It was fun though,” he pointed out.

“It was,” agreed Nathan, and then, echoing his movement at the end of that shared dream, Nathan reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind Duke’s ear. “I never really hated you Duke,” he said. 


End file.
